Last month I attended the 2012 annual Sakai conference in Atlanta, GA along with a cohort of my colleagues from Pomona College. This year the conference was a little different in that it was held jointly with the Jasig Community. Jasig is similar to the Sakai Foundation in that it sponsors a number of open-source projects for higher education. They include uPortal, an open-source web portal; CAS, an open-source authentication system; Bedework, an open-source enterprise calendar system; and uMobile, an initiative to bring campus content to mobile devices.

At last year’s conference it was announced that the Sakai Foundation and Jasig were proposing a merger between the two communities. The two communities will be voting on the proposal in the near future. Certainly, holding a joint conference was a great way to show how a merger could be mutually beneficial. I attended several Jasig sessions and could see many areas where collaboration would be very helpful, for example in the area of developing a mobile Sakai.

At this year’s conference, developers were showing off version 1.3 of Sakai OAE (Open Academic Environment). Sakai OAE is being developed in tandem with Sakai CLE (Collaborative Learning Environment) which is the version that we are currently using at The Claremont Colleges. Sakai OAE is focused more on content creation and sharing. The new version has impressive drag-and-drop features for content creation and was very well received by the conference attendees.

I attended many interesting sessions. Among the highlights: using the Evaluation System tool for online course evaluations, common pitfalls in the Gradebook tool, integrating Google calendars into Sakai, and using external tools and open content in Sakai. Please feel free to stop by and ask me for more details if any of these topics interest you.

This summer CIS will be supporting three projects through the Teaching With Technology Innovation program. Four faculty, Rachel Levy, Karl Haushalter, Darryl Yong, and Nancy Lape, will be creating short lecture videos using software called Camtasia in order to explore the advantages of the “flipped” classroom. In the flipped classroom model, students watch the lectures outside of the classroom so that classroom time can be used for other purposes. CIS is providing loaner tablet PCs, the Camtasia software, and a USB webcam. We have also hired a student, Joyce Lin, who will be assisting the faculty with the Camtasia software and with creating and editing the videos.

The second project is with the Math department. The Math department has hired several students who will be working with a faculty supervisor to create short computing modules in each of the mathematics courses in the Common Core. CIS is supporting the project by providing one of the student stipends. Jeho Park, our Scientific Computing Specialist, will also be working with the team as a mentor to provide his expertise and training in mathematical software.

The final project is a continuation of a project for Paul Steinberg. Last summer Prof. Steinberg was focused on creating a social media website for the Social Rules Project. The Social Rules Project is a “multi-media educational outreach initiative at Harvey Mudd designed to raise awareness about the importance of public policies and other social rules in the transition to a more sustainable world.” CIS supported the project last summer by providing a student stipend for the web design work. Prof. Steinberg did a great Bite of Learning presentation in the spring on his project and the initial web site design. For phase II of the project this summer CIS will be providing access to Adobe Aftereffects and Flash, as well as some loaner laptops, to students from the California Institute of the Arts. The students will be creating a 10-minute animated video that will be a highlight of the website’s landing page.

We’re looking forward to seeing some of the results of these projects at upcoming presentations at A Bite of Learning next year!

Short version:

CIS in conjunction with the Dean of Faculty’s Office will be running the third term of a pilot program, Teaching with Technology Innovation Grants, this summer. The grant program’s goal is to support faculty in the incorporation of technology in their teaching. Faculty whose projects are selected for a grant will receive support from CIS in the form of staff time and/or a stipend depending on the needs of the project. Reply to Elizabeth Hodas for more info or read through the following call for proposals.

Formal and long version:

Summer 2012 Teaching with Technology Innovation Grant Call for Proposals
0. Important Dates

March 30, 2012 — Proposal Submission Deadline
April 13, 2012  — Awardees Announcement
May 18, 2012 — Begin meeting with CIS staff
August 15, 2012 — Final meeting with CIS

1. Overview

During Summer 2012, CIS will be conducting a faculty technology grant pilot, the “Teaching with Technology Innovation Grant.” We invite proposals from faculty for projects that aim to improve student learning outcomes by exploiting new and innovative technology in education. The grant program provides support for utilizing emerging technology as well as access to CIS staff time and training.

During the 2012 pilot period, two to three projects will be supported. Priority consideration will be given to applications that:

• have high impact on student learning;
• engage in innovation of teaching and research through the use of technology;
• have applicability of its use by other faculty members;
• are feasible to be completed and implemented during the proposed time line;
• are not already available elsewhere on campus;
• could not be purchased with other funds such as grant money or departmental funds.

The pilot program is being run in conjunction with the Dean of Faculty’s Office.

2. Eligibility

All faculty at Harvey Mudd College are eligible to apply.

3. Awards

Each selected project will be awarded a stipend and/or software and hardware as needed; the amount of the stipend will be determined by the requirements of the proposal. Faculty will work closely with CIS staff to complete the project.

4. Expectations

Upon completion of the projects or at the end of the project term, faculty may be asked to do a presentation about their project at A Bite of Learning or other venue, or write a brief report on the project goals, achievements and their experiences to be shared with HMC faculty, students and staff. CIS may also ask faculty to survey the students in their courses about how the project affected their learning experience.

5. Application Procedure

All proposals must be submitted to CIS by March 30, 2012. Submitted proposals will be reviewed by the selection committee in early April.  Grant awardees will be announced by email and on the CIS website by April 13, 2012. The selection committee includes members from CIS and the Dean of Faculty’s Office.

Faculty should submit a brief description of their project including as much of the following information as possible: project’s goal and significance; required staff resources, equipment and material; timeline for project completion; your availability during the summer for work with CIS staff on the project; estimated budget (estimate costs of hardware, software and person-hours). Faculty should feel free to consult with CIS if they have any questions.

Proposals should be emailed to Elizabeth_Hodas@hmc.edu or Jeho_Park@hmc.edu

6. Selected Projects

Summer 2011

Lecture Capture System in the Learning Studio Classroom by Prof. Mike Erlinger (CS): Prof. Mike Erlinger approached the ETMS group with a proposal to build a lecture capture system in the Learning Studio Classroom. Prof. Erlinger was interested in an automated lecture capture system that would make it easier to videotape student presentations for students to review. Our audiovisual staff had manually videotaped classes for Prof. Erlinger in Spring 2011, but this required a great deal of staff time to accomplish. Prof. Erlinger worked with Michael Meyka and James Sadler to write a proposal that used off-the-shelf components to create a more automated system.
Website Development for Social Rules Project by Prof. Paul Steinberg (HSA): Prof. Paul Steinberg proposed a project to launch a social media website featuring educational materials developed by his students in the Social Rules Project. The project is a Harvey Mudd initiative designed to raise public awareness about the importance of public policies and other authoritative social rules in the transition to a more sustainable world. During Summer 2011, Prof. Steinberg, Communications Department, and CIS worked collaboratively to plan the website and, with funding from the grant program, a talented student web technologist has been working on building the website.

Summer 2010

ODE Architect Software Package Incompatibility Solutions by Prof. Bob Borrelli (Math): In his proposal, Prof. Borrelli addressed compatibility issues with ODE Architect (ODEA) package and Windows 7 operating systems. The ODEA is a 12-year old legacy software package still being used by some Differential Equations courses at the Claremont Colleges. Through this project, CIS reviewed the issue thoroughly and proposed a viable alternative, virtualization with cloud computing, using a free cloud computing service called CloudShare.com. The solution is being used by math faculty and students in Math 45 this semester. For more info, visit http://www5.hmc.edu/ITNews/?p=609.
Web-based Multimedia Quiz Tools by Prof. Bill Alves (HSA): Prof. Bill Alves was looking for a robust web-based quiz tool for his music courses. The requirements for the quiz tool were that it should 1) provide feedback for every answer chosen, 2) allow multiple attempts, 3) allow embedding mp3 files, video clips, and YouTube clips, and 4) be platform independent. CIS searched for available quiz tools out on the Internet, and made suggestions. Through testing and discussions, Hotpotatoes.net service was chosen. It is being used by two Music courses, Film Music (MUS179) and Music of the Peoples of the World (Mus063), this semester.
Hand-Press Printing How-to Video Making by Prof. Jeff Groves (HSA): Prof. Jeff Groves wanted to create a series of hand-press printing videos to help his students understand complex procedures of creating hand-press printing and (more importantly) cleaning the press after use. During 2010 summer, CIS A/V team supported his creating storyboard, filming footages, and editing/encoding/compressing the clips. The video clips are currently being used for his course, Workshop in Hand Press Printing (ART 060), this semester.

7. Contact Info

Elizabeth Hodas: Elizabeth_Hodas@hmc.edu, x74583
Jeho Park: Jeho_Park@hmc.edu, x 79023

Last week Jeho Park and I both attended the ELI 2012 Conference in Austin, TX. ELI stands for the Educase Learning Initiative and is the educational technology arm of Educause. Their annual conference is an opportunity for educational technologists, librarians, CIOs, faculty, and students to get together and talk about new and emerging technologies, new initiatives on supporting teaching and learning, and other topics. This year ELI sponsored a special Roundtable on Learning Analytics which I attended. The Roundtable consisted of 20 participants who got together for a special session on each of the three days of the conference. In addition to several introductory presentations on leadership and leading change and on the field of learning analytics, there were also presentations by ELI members who have implemented learning analytics on their campuses. One of the presenters was Dr. John Fritz from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. He presented on a tool called “Check My Activity” that they developed for their instance of Blackboard. Dr. Fritz will be presenting via videoconference at A Bite of Learning on March 19th so be sure to attend if you’d like to learn more. Most of the learning analytics tools focus on identifying students who are struggling in order to provide appropriate interventions.

Jeho and I also presented at an Innovation Showcase Session on our “A Bite of Learning” lunchtime speaker series. The Innovation Showcase Session consists of three 15-minute presentations followed by breakout discussion groups.  Our presentation focused on the lessons we’ve learned over the past two years in organizing and managing a successful speaker series. Our session was well received and the attendees seemed to appreciate the practical suggestions and advice that we offered. I also facilitated a “Learning Circle” on accessibility. This is not a topic I know a lot about, but fortunately there were some experts in the group who knew quite a lot so we had a lively and informative discussion. A trademark of the annual ELI conference is their emphasis on trying out new formats for presentations. In addition to regular sessions and the Innovation Showcase Sessions and Learning Circles, there were also several debate/discussion panels, an ELI game, and “Experience IT Sessions” where participants could try out different technologies.

One of the highlights of the ELI conference is the annual presentation of the Horizon Report. The Horizon Report describes emerging technologies that are expected to have an impact on education over the next five years. This year the report focused on mobile apps, tablet computing, game-based learning, learning analytics, gesture-based computing, and the “Internet of Things.” The Horizon Report is published by the New Media Consortium and ELI. You can read the full report by downloading the PDF at http://www.educause.edu/Resources/2012HorizonReport/246056.

Jeho and I had a very rewarding conference experience, as well as some truly excellent Texas BBQ, so feel free to ask us about some of the other sessions we attended.

As you may know, the Educational Technology and Media Services group has been conducting a pilot of a lecture capture system in the Learning Studio Classroom. (You can read the details here.) The piece that’s been missing, however, is an easy and convenient way to upload and distribute the lecture capture videos to the faculty and students. We’ve also been looking for a video streaming solution that allows faculty, staff and students to upload videos by themselves. Our current video streaming server does not allow self-service uploading and distribution.

One of the solutions that we’ve been interested in is Kaltura, a video hosting service that we’ve seen demonstrated at several conferences. It’s been of particular interest because it has a tool that integrates with Sakai, our course management system. During the Fall 2011 semester we tested a free demo account and decided to go ahead with a limited pilot in the Spring 2012 semester.

We have several faculty who have agreed to help us test Kaltura this semester. In addition to faculty who will be using it as a test of the distribution part of our lecture capture system, we also have several faculty who will be testing it for uploading their own videos and distributing them to their students via Sakai.

We’re looking forward to hearing the facultys’ feedback on how well Kaltura meets their needs. Stay tuned for more news on both the lecture capture system and the Kaltura pilot.

The Spring 2012 A Bite of Learning series has started off with a bang with two very well-attended presentations. The first was by Prof. David Vosburg from the HMC Chemistry department. Prof. Vosburg spoke about his experiments using an app called AirSketch on his iPad. AirSketch allows an instructor to bring PDF or JPEG files up on the iPad screen and annotate them. The iPad connects wirelessly to a laptop that then projects the annotated images in real time to a video projector. Over twenty faculty, students and staff attended and there was a lively discussion on how this technology could be used to enhance teaching and learning during class time.

The second presentation was by Prof. Char Miller, Director of the Environmental Analysis Program at Pomona College. Prof. Miller spoke on his use of Pomona’s Video47 service for streaming movies to his classes through Sakai. Personally, my favorite part of his presentation were his comments on why it’s important to use video in teaching. The attendees were very curious about the Video47 service and Prof. Miller demonstrated his use of the video streaming technology in one of his Sakai courses.

You can find the complete schedule of the Spring 2012 A Bite of Learning series on our web site at: http://www.hmc.edu/about1/administrativeoffices/cis1/edtech/a_bite_of_learning.html.

In April 2011 Prof. Mike Erlinger approached the ETMS group with a proposal to build a lecture capture system in the Learning Studio Classroom. Prof. Erlinger was interested in an automated lecture capture system that would make it easier to videotape student presentations for students to review. Our audiovisual staff had manually videotaped classes for Prof. Erlinger in Spring 2011, but this required a great deal of staff time to accomplish. Prof. Erlinger worked with Michael Meyka and James Sadler to write a proposal that used off-the-shelf components to create a more automated system. Since this project fit very well within the scope of our Teaching with Technology Innovation Grant program, ETMS decided to fund the project and create a pilot automated lecture capture system during Summer 2011.

The system that was installed for the Fall 2011 semester consisted of a web cam installed in the ceiling of the classroom, a PC desktop with Wirecast software, a VGA converter box and a large hard drive. Total cost of the system was approximately $1500.

Prof. Erlinger began using the lecture capture system to videotape student presentations in CSCI 121-Software Engineering during the Fall 2011 semester. Michael and James did a presentation at A Bite of Learning on September 19th to describe the pilot program and our very preliminary results. Soon after that Prof. Michael Orrison asked to participate in the pilot program as well. He has also been using it to record student presentations in Math Forum.

While we’ve gathered a lot of good feedback with the pilot program, we’re not ready to go production with the lecture capture system yet. We’ll be continuing with the pilot program in Spring 2012 with the same two courses. We’re limited in the number of courses we can support because we don’t yet have a solution for storing and distributing the videos. However, in Spring 2012 we’ll be running another pilot with Kaltura, a hosted video service that integrates with Sakai, our course management system. So stay tuned for more information on that pilot!

As you are probably aware one of the Audiovisual Office’s summer projects was to prepare eight temporary classrooms to replace the classrooms in Thomas-Garrett. Since the classrooms opened in August, the Dean of Faculty’s Office has made it possible for us to make a number of additional improvements to the temporary classrooms.

Furniture in the Learning Studio Classroom

The video projector in Beckman B115 was one that we had moved from Thomas-Garrett and was not bright enough. It has been replaced with a new Epson video projector. We’re also working with the Dean of Faculty’s Office and Facilities and Maintenance to upgrade the audiovisual equipment in Parsons B146 to include audio, a new video projector, and an SP control system with a VHS/DVD player. We’re also hoping to replace the furniture with tables and chairs similar to, or the same as, the furniture in the Learning Studio.

We’ve also made a few repairs since the semester started. The video projector VGA cable in Parsons B144 was replaced. The motorized screen in Platt A/B has been repaired several times. We’re still having problems with it, however, in that it does not automatically stop at the correct height as it should. We are looking into replacing it.